" I arrived at the polling station on the night before Catalonia was set
to vote in a contested referendum on the region’s independence from
Spain. A Spanish court had declared the referendum illegal, and Madrid
had sent thousands of riot police to Catalonia to shut down the vote. By
midnight, workers at the polling station closed the building’s
corrugated metal gate and sealed us in until morning, or until the
police arrived. Inside, we waited for whichever came first. "
